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Orphaned Heidi lives with her gruff but caring grandfather on the side of Swiss mountain, where she befriends young Peter the goat-herd. She leads an idyllic life, until she is forced to leave the mountain she has always known to go and live with a sickly girl in the city. Will Heidi ever see her grandfather again? A classic tale of a young girl's coming-of-age, of friendship, and familial love

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Beware, the beauty of literature is not in this edition! THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE PUFFIN IN BLOOM EDITION ONLY. Heidi is such an awesome story, the translation by Helen Dole reads so beautifully and engages the reader to follow closely along, to interact and enter into the adventure. This book has short sentences, as if to hand feed the reader so that they don't need to pay attention or engage. In other words- it's a dumbed-down translation!! Please don't deprive young readers of good literature! There is a place for simplified versions of books BUT that should be clear when purchasing that it isn't the original version and writing has been altered. This book changes the names of characters too. It is a travesty!! So, if all you want is a "pretty" cover - fine, but even the inside illustrations aren't good - it saddened me and I sent it back. Thank you, Amazon for ease of returns. Please be aware that Amazon sells different editions translated differently. Perhaps you'll find a new edition that is better than this one. I'm very happy with the used copy I found on Amazon with a copy write date of 1945. The illustrations are wonderful and the language is beautiful, and the names are not Americanized. The Puffin in Bloom edition has a character named Barbie.

I got as far as the title page in this book where it listed the author (Johanna Spyri) and the translator, Elisabeth P. Stork. Heidi was originally translated into English by Charles Tritten (who later wrote 2 sequels - "Heidi Grows Up" and "Heidi's Children"). This is NOT the version of Heidi that I grew up with and NOT what I wanted. It is going back immediately and I've already ordered another copy, this time with the translation done by Tritten. A search on Amazon for "Heidi translated by Charles Tritten" turns up a listing for the book with the original translation.

This review pertains to the Puffin in Bloom edition of Heidi, rather than to the literary merit of the book or translation (by Eileen Hall).

The cover illustration is done by Anna Bond who may be better known for her lovely stationery collection, Rifle Paper Co. The cover is a vibrant yellow-green with the title in gold embossing over a floral-framed mountain scene. The back cover features a pull-out quote – "Heidi looked around with growing delight at the mountain peaks she knew so well and which seemed to greet her like old friends."

The interior illustrations, taken from the 1956 edition of Heidi also published by Puffin, are charmingly vintage. There appears to be one illustration per chapter. The book is typeset in Minion and just the right size to be accessible to both children and adults.

This edition also includes end notes with a profile of Johanna Spyri, information about Switzerland, and brief character and reading guides.

It's unfortunate that the reviews of all the different adaptations, abridgements, and translations of Heidi are grouped together because they seem to be very, very different books. My review is for the Great Illustrated Classics edition adapted by Deidre S. Laiken. It features a full page pen and ink drawing on every other page and a beautiful cover with Heidi in an upland meadow surrounded by flowers and goats and snowy peaks in the background. It's a bit surprising that Heidi has long blond hair on the cover and short dark hair inside.

I never read Heidi as a child because the young girl's homesickness after being removed from the place she loved was a subject I found too painful to read about, and I had never come back to it as an adult. But this shortened version with the spectacular cover got my attention. In most abridged books, the descriptions and the atmosphere are the first to go, and that's true here. You don't have the sense of being in the alpine meadows, which I judge from other reviews is one of the strong points of the original book. Heidi's longing to be back in the mountains with her grandfather is mentioned--we know she cried herself to sleep every night--but the author doesn't dwell on it. Even though it's an important part of the story, I have to say I'm glad she didn't. Other reviewers have indicated that religion plays an important part in the original text, but it doesn't here. People go to church and the pastor is a minor character, but religious themes are absent, and that would seem to be a loss. The book is short--236 pages, half of which are pictures--and the story is told simply for young readers. Those who want more can always go back to a longer version, as I may do at some point. But this is at least a good introduction. As an older adult, I found it enjoyable and I'm glad I read it.